Lead author Professor Archana Singh-Manoux, from University College London, said: “Omics technologies are exciting, as they allow the concurrent assessment of many biomarkers, some of which may turn out to be important to detect preclinical states of diseases or be markers of future disease.”

The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, included data collected between 1997 and 1999 on 6,545 men and women aged 45 to 69 years.

The marker, known as IL-6 predicts inflammation in response to the early signs of cancer, heart disease and other serious conditions

“Our findings show IL-6, which is already known to be important to heart disease, to do better than AGP.

“Research on biomarkers is progressing fast, and it is important to undertake checks like in the one in our study, to shape future research on biomarkers.”

In a related commentary, Dr Paul Ridker, from the Centre for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Harvard Medical School, said: “Biomarker discovery is crucial for thinking about new treatment targets.